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Dear Person Asking Me to Play Your Gig…

In today’s post we discuss some of the pet peeves artists encounter when working with venues, booking agents, event planners, and the average lay person looking to book them for a show. This stuff also applies to your fellow artist.

Dear Venue,

As a working artist my goals are to keep my fans up to speed what I’m doing, to let them know where they can find me, and to put on a great show. While I am independent and often work alone, there are tons of things that you as the organizer can do to help me provide a quality event for you, make the establishment you work for happy with how the show went, and help me keep my peace of mind.

1. Don’t Tell me this Show is For Exposure

Using the word exposure is a very easy and immediate way to lose my attention. If you don’t actually think this gig is going to move mountains in the way of “massive exposure” , please don’t make empty promises or use those words. Our working relationship will be alot better if you can give me a realistic expectation of what the event will really look like.

2. Please Use Email

Text Messaging is alot of fun and all, but if this is important, and you want me to take it seriously, please email me with the facts. I don’t mean to be difficult, but sending me 10 text messages in a row, because you had alot of information to share, feels like one big joke. Help me by creating a paper trail so that we can keep a record of who said what, when the contract needs to be turned in, and day-of-show details. I have 15 other shows on the horizon, so that email thread is super important for my sanity and organization. Also Facebook inboxing is not email. Lets stick with email.

3. Talk about the Money

I get it – no one likes to talk about money. But please be up front about the money situation. If you cant pay me or don’t have funding from the higher ups, then just tell me that. Don’t pretend you forgot to talk about it or that it’s a non-issue..I’m more willing to play a free show when someone directly addresses the money situation (or lack thereof). If you act like I’m just supposed to want to play the gig for free, I will most likely decline. See #1 above.

4. Please Tell Me There is a Sound System

You will need a sound system. You may even need to hire a sound man. Depending on the type and scale of event, you may even need to ask me to bring some or all of my own equipment. But you cant just assume we’ll figure it out day-of. Also…the podium’s microphone is not a sound system.

5. Please Put Together a Bill that Makes Sense

The show will be alot easier to promote if the other artists on the bill are comparable or if they appeal to a relatively similar audience. I love listening to all types of music, but I have fans who are 5x more likely to come out to my show if they like the other artists as well. It’s a fact. Just know that pairing me with a thrash metal band will hurt your expected draw and it will just be plain weird.

6. Please Spearhead Promotion

If you are the event planner, talent buyer, marketing person, or whatever they call you, please connect all the artists on the bill and help coordinate a promotional game plan. You are our common denominator. If you can tell us when the ticket link goes live, any specific details you think we should stick on our websites, when the artwork is created, and when the Facebook event is setup, we can all collaborate and use the same resources to collectively promote the show. In fact, you will get extra bonus points if you send us a group email with everyone’s Twitter/Instagram handles, and Facebook Pages. That will remind us that we need to tag each other for the sake of cross promotion.

7. Communicate

Dont book me for the show and then fall off the grid. If you’re simply the booker and don’t handle day-of Production Manager type stuff, please connect me to the person I should be hashing out details with. It will make the planning go much smoother.

I really want the venue, the audience, and myself to have a great experience. Thank you for reading. Sincerely,

About the author

If it’s outside, we need cover over us, rain or shine. time is important so, make sure we know what time we are supposed to start and how long we are expected to play. We do not move tables and chairs or set up a stage!!!

Dean Johanesen

Communication is a key part in most of these here. I have had to become pretty proactive with acquiring as much information as I can as soon as possible in case there is a lapse in contact. I have also started checking in the day before or the week of the show to make sure everything is as talked about.

I put together a form email to help me nail things down for gigs and I thought I would share part of the details run down from that email here. With this, I fill in what info I have after the initial contact and maybe what date has been agreed upon.

Booking quick detail form – 2015

Venue:
Address:
Phone:
Web site:
Contact:
Date:
Time Frame: ?
Load in time:
PA: Artist provided OR Venue Provided – ?
If venue provided, what do you have for a PA: ?
Is there a sound man: ?
Age: (All / 18+ / 21+ etc)……..?
Cover: ?
Guarantee: ?
Tab: ?
Any specials to help promote: ?
Bands on the line up to help promote: ?

The weather comment below would be good to add to this. Maybe information about coverage as well as compensation and or rescheduling if the weather is bad and there is no cover or inside area to set up.

Thank you for the article.

grassrootsy

great stuff, Dean! Thanks for sharing!

grassrootsy

good additions, David. thanks!

sawbuck

Also, please make sure there are adequate outlets near enough the stage/setup area that our extension cords can reach. inform us ahead of time if someone is going to be making announcements, needing our mikes, etc, during our set.

and if i want exposure, i’ll take off my clothes and run around in the snow.